Myself and Oliver’s showjumping season finished up very well. In fact, it was one of the best seasons I have had in a long time. In the last few years both of us have been focusing on building up a good young talented team of horses, which is now starting to show in the results we are achieving. 

Oliver is now on the lookout for another Grand Prix horse after selling his very successful coloured gelding Billistic to America. However his 18hh 7yr old gelding called Burttorio stepped up to the challenge at the end of the season competing in his first few Grand Prix classes with placings in each. He also finished in the top 10 in the NZ 7yr old series which was a great achievement. Oliver’s other exciting young horse is 6 yr old imported mare from Holland called Brainy G. She finish 5th in the NZ  6yr old series which we were very happy with as she had a slower start than most as she came into the country in foal, therefore missing a lot of her 5 yr old year. Oliver is planning on competing her in the 7 yr old classes next season with the hope of starting her in some Grand Prix classes towards the end of the season.

My main horse, 6 yr old NZ bred mare Double J Rumours did not put a foot wrong during the season winning the National 6 yr old title in Christchurch, the South Island 6 yr old title also in Christchurch and topping it off by winning the overall NZ 6 yr old series. She also helped me to take out the North Island Amateur class held in Gisborne along with 10 other Amateur wins for the season which give me substantial points to win the NZ Amateur series. She was also placed 3rd in the NZ leading mare series as well! My plans for her next season will be to compete in the NZ 7 yr old series and also to step up into the Pro AM classes which are one height down from Grand Prix. Over the winter I have purchased 4 yr old NZ bred Gelding Double J Sunshine. I have been taking him to some winter shows and am very excited to bring him out this spring as a 5 yr old. He has lovely movement and a huge jump so think he has a big future.

Currently we are right in the middle of our hunting season which is going really well. I have an 8 yr old who I hunted last year and Oliver has a lovely 6 yr old Dun gelding which he bought at the start of the season. This is his first season hunting and has caught the eye of a lot of people, leading me to think that the offers to purchase him might be too good to turn down come July when the season finishes. Oliver really does do a great job of producing horses for all disciplines (including hunting) and horses don’t tend to hang around for that long when people see then out going with him!

We are also very busy at the moment breaking in youngsters for other people and pre training race horses. Oliver’s sheep and beef farm has great hills for getting horses fit and trainers like the way the horses get a variety of work at our place.

All the horses at our place are being fed EasiResult (which we have just ordered another tonne of), and are doing great on it. Usually during the winter we find it hard to keep the condition on them, however this winter they are looking fantastic!

Thank you for your ongoing support, and we hope everyone in Team Pryde’s is fit and well!

Cheers,
Brooke Zander & Oliver Edgecombe.